Precious is finally arriving in theaters after being the
beneficiary of practically a year's worth of buzz since winning
a trio of trophies at Sundance, including that prestigious film
festival's equivalent of Best Picture. I'm happy to be the
bearer of the good news that the movie more than lives up to the
critical acclaim.

Based on the novel Push by
Sapphire, that relentlessly-raw best seller has been
faithfully adapted by
Lee
Daniels, the producer of
Monster's Ball, the flick for which
Halle Berry won her Academy Award in 2002. There's a good chance
that Daniels is about to repeat that historic feat, for he has
coaxed an Oscar-quality performance out of
comedienne-turned-actress Mo'Nique,
who is riveting here as one of the most monstrous screen
villains in memory.

Set in Harlem in 1987, this remarkably-realistic tale of woe
is narrated by Clareece Precious' Jones (Gabby Sidibe), an
overweight and illiterate, 16 year-old still in junior high. She
claims to enjoy Math class because, instead of opening her
textbook, she simply sits there fantasizing about sleeping with
her teacher, Mr. Wicher (Ean Sheehy). However, as the film
further unfolds, being behind a few grades turns out to be the
least of the portly pepperpot's problems.

Over the protests, I do my work, and My grades is good,
Precious is suspended from school for being pregnant. We also
learn that she is not only expecting, but already has a daughter
with Down Syndrome. So, between the absentee-father who
impregnated her, and the relentlessly-abusive mother (MoNique)
who insists shell never amount to anything, it's no surprise
that Precious frequently escapes into a parallel universe where
she daydreams about being rescued from her nightmarish existence
by a light-skinned boyfriend with good hair.

But while desperately awaiting that proverbial knight in
shining armor to materialize, Precious finds herself repeatedly
slapped in the face, whether literally, by her mom, or
figuratively, by a social service bureaucracy way too willing to
let her slip through the cracks. The all but lost teen is
shuttled back and forth between well-meaning, if ineffective
lifelines, like her clueless welfare case-worker (Mariah Carey)
and a kindly nurse (Lenny Kravitz).

Tragically, no one seems to have any answers until Precious'
goes back to school where her compassionate GED teacher (Paula
Patton) takes a special interest in her well-being. Nonetheless,
nurturing the self-esteem of a life-long doormat calls for a
Herculean effort that might prove beyond the resources of
resolute Ms Rain.

As poignant as it is shocking, Precious stands as an
undeniably authentic contrast to those ghetto fabulous
adventures celebrating macho, misogynistic, malevolent and
misanthropic behavior presumably of no emotional consequence. A
searing, inner-city saga of transformation and triumph, and a
masterpiece not to be forgotten during awards season.

In an electrifying
novel, a black street girl, sixteen years old and pregnant,
again, with her father's child, speaks. In a voice that shakes
us by its language, its story, and its unflinching honesty,
Precious Jones records her journey up from Harlem's lowest
depths... For Precious, miraculously, hope appears and the world
begins to open up when a courageous black woman - a teacher hellbent to teach - bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to
read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary: to discover the truth of
her life.

Day after day they go over the pages, translating the illiterate but developing
language of Precious' journals. The learning process itself, as vividly revealed as the
most brutal aspects of Precious' daily existence, is the heartbeat of a novel that will
disturb, galvanize, and stay in the mind.